I collect treasures. To some people, I collect junk. But one object I own that has never lost its luster is the View-Master. Even as an adult, the sensation of looking at reels ranging from visuals showing vintage Disney cartoons to 1960s New York cityscapes, the View-Master has served up a type of visual immersive space since the late 1930s. From dioramas to panoramas, the allure of being enveloped in a place or tableau outside of one’s reality has mass appeal considering the popularity of virtual reality technologies such as the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Through 360 filmmaking and photography, the creation of space within the virtual realm has become commonplace. From journalism to entertainment purposes, while virtual worlds enable a new way of seeing fantastical worlds, artists and designers must consider format and aesthetics. In the first part of a two-part series, Not Your Average Playtest, I scratch the surface of the history of virtuality from analog to digital formats and examine how contemporary artists are using virtual reality as a medium.--Subscribe to Art Practical on iTunes to catch PRNT SCRN as soon as it publishes! Check us out on Instagram (@prnt_scrn_ap) and Twitter (@PRNTSCRN1). #APaudio.